Best Month Ever

If you aren't aware yet, I am here to let you know that March is the best month ever.  If you are wondering why, I am kind of upset that no one took the time to stalk me and figure out when my birthday is.  

Okay, I'm not really upset (thank you, for not stalking me, actually), but my birthday IS this month, and it IS a big deal.  I think I get so excited about it because its at the very very end, so I anticipate it all month.  In reality, I never do anything that great for my birthday, but this year, I am most likely heading down to Baltimore/DC (again, not very exciting), but I am also going to be leaving for Hawaii again less than a week after!  And when I come back, I'll be bringing my husband with me.  Not bad, right?  

Anyway, I know that March technically started yesterday, but this is the first day of the week, so its the first important day.  And for me, March started out with a snow day.  This was kind of upsetting.  First, I only have two weeks left at the school I am student teaching at, and I just lost a day.  Second, I was supposed to be observed today, and I was up late last night actually writing a lesson plan.  

The day off had its perks though.  First, I didn't do any of my work for class tonight, so I got that all done.  Second, my supervisor can come tomorrow, so I didn't make up the fancy lesson plan for naught.  Third, at least since its a Monday, it was a scheduled day off from the gym.  Fourth, I got to actually cook some food.  So much that I can't even fit it in one post.  

Vegan Green "Eggs" and...Oats

I went into the fridge this morning, and all I could find was a broccoli.  Okay, I like broccoli, but I REALLY wanted some tofu scramble.  I could just use broccoli and onions I guess.  But then, I found green onions.  Then, I found a half a green pepper.  Then, I decided I'd throw in some of this really beautiful chard that I bought...oh...two weeks ago? (Debbie Meyers Green Bags are a lifesaver)  Add that to 1/4 block of tofu, make it sweet and spicy, and you've got one good green breakfast.  

I had some chocolate oats with strawberries on the side.  It was just some soymilk, cocoa powder, and butter toffee flavored stevia.  Good way to start off the day off.

Now, I know I said I was going on a baking hiatus, but Celine knocked me back to my senses.  I don't think anything makes me happier than a creatively healthy baked good.  Enter her Chickpea Blondies that she posted about this weekend.  

Baking with beans is just the best idea ever.  I've made cookies with lentils, and I'm sure that many of you have tried black bean brownies (I have not...and I'm not sure why), but since I had never had a blondie before, ever, I had to try them immediately. 

I made two changes, I used seedless blackberry jam, and I used protein powder instead of flour (its only two tablespoons, it doesn't make a big difference).  

She says they serve 8, but mine wanted to be cut into 12.  

Serves 12

Nutrition Information:  157.4 Calories;  4.2g Total Fat;  0.5g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  25.3g Carbohydrates;  2.9g Fiber;  4.7g Protein 

 Its the kind of day where you have more than one dessert (because I said so), so I made some Pumpkin & Banana Protein Ice Cream.  

Protein powder, frozen pumpkin, frozen bananas, coconut oil, pumpkin pie spice, some carob chips and soymilk.  Pretty similar to my usual method, except I used way more frozen fruit/pumpkin this time, so I used more soymilk.  This was way more than I was anticipating, and was pretty filling too.  It should be, oil, protein, fruit, whew. 

More food love tomorrow (or the next day, or whenever I get another free hour)!

Dates in the New Years

Granola-Date Cups

I couldn't be happier it is 2009.  I tried really hard not to be despondent about 2008, but my husband being deployed really didn't make for an awesome year.  Considering how much I wasn't looking forward to it though, it wasn't all bad, but this year, I have tons of stuff going on:   

1.  Graduating with my Master's

2.  Husband coming home from Iraq

3.  Getting a job (hopefully)

4.  Husband getting a new job (also hopefully)

5.  Buying a house

6.  Moving

7.  Having my refrigerator to myself instead of just a shelf.

8.  Getting a kitten!`(Zoe will probably not like this, but my husband thinks that she doesn't like him because we got her when she was already a year old.  So he wants to get a baby so he can brainwash it into liking him when it is young and impressionable, haha).

I'll also be cooking a lot of food, of course!  One of my challenges for the year is going to be perfecting the lunchbox meal, so that will be interesting.  I got a bunch of lunchbox/travelware for Christmas, so I'm well on my way, I think.

Luckily, 2009 started out with some good food.  I stayed at my friend's house last night and wanted to bring a healthy breakfast, because I wanted to go straight to the gym (exercise does help a mild hangover in case anyone was wondering).  A few days ago I made the Power Hungry Granola from My Sweet Vegan.  While I was entering the information into the nutrition calculator though, I realized that I'm pretty sure I forgot the brown sugar.  It came out fine anyway, I didn't even realize it until now.  I did not add the fruit or nuts and the recipe made about 3 cups of granola.

        

Makes 12, 1/4 cup servings (calculated with brown sugar)

Nutrition Information:  121.9 Calories;  1.8g Total Fat;  0.2g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  21.3g Carbohydrates;  2.4g Fiber;  5.3g Protein.

I found it an ingenious idea to put TVP in granola.  I really like this stuff, although I'm not really a cereal person, so I've just been eating it straight.  It can be kind of hard to transport.  So I made a chunky date paste in my food processor and mixed the granola in with it.  The picture you see at the top of the post, for the Granola-Date Cups is what it looked like after I pressed it into a silicon baking cup and let it chill.  Next time, I will probably soak the dates first, I just didn't have time last night.    

You could obviously do this with any granola, but I really like this one because it has fewer calories and more protein than any commercial granola I have found.  I used 1/2 cup of granola, and 12 dates (my dates are fairly small), and made 2 cups.

One Granola-Date Cup

Nutrition Information:  250.3 Calories;  2.0g Total Fat;  0.2g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  55.5g Carbohydrates;  6.0g Fiber;  6.4g Protein 

Someone told me once that it wasn't a good idea to have a picture of my cat on a food blog.  I think that, as this is a vegan food blog, it is pretty obvious that a.) I am not going to eat my cat, and b.) She doesn't want to eat the food I am making.  So I am unsure why this advice was given (and I clearly didn't take it anyway).  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that one of the only things she does like is TVP.  She really likes it.  So much so that she wanted to take a nibble of my granola.     

Don't worry, I am not going to start feeding my cat vegan granola, in fact, I was a mean mommy and didn't even let her taste it.  

Anyway, I had a trial run last night, and packed dinner to eat at my friend's house.  My family went for Chinese, the friends had sushi, so I just tagged along with my family and then ate at her house.  For dessert I made the Strawberry Mousse from Vegan Express.  I think I kind of messed it up because I only had frozen strawberries.  I put some agar powder in it, and it did thicken up, but it was much better today, after having awhile to set.  

Serves 6

Nutrition Information:  93.9 Calories;  0.8g Total Fat;  0.0g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  18.0g Carbohydrates;  3.1g Fiber;  4.4g Protein

I hope that everyone else had a fabulous New Year's Eve and is starting 2009 on the right foot!  

Peanut Butter Cookie Monster

I love dessert.  I love eating dessert.  I love the idea of making my own dessert creations.  Truth be told, however, I rarely actually do that.  I would much rather search for a recipe, be inspired by a blog post, or buy a cookbook by someone who is clearly more experienced than I, and avoid being disappointed.  You’d think, as someone with a science background, that the science behind baking would intrigue me, but...tis not so.    

Luckily, I got two vegan dessert cookbooks for Christmas:  My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky and The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.  I have to say that one of my favorite things about both of these books is all the pictures!  They make the recipes so much more mouthwatering and memorable.    

I was also elated to be gifted with a Kitchen Aid food processor from my parents.  So, the first thing I did was make peanut butter.  This is good for a number of reasons.  First, I can’t control myself around an entire jar of peanut butter, so now I can make limited quantities.  Second...um...I like peanut butter?  I’m not sure why I said there were a number of reasons, peanut butter just rocks.  

   

Anyway, after making my peanut butter, I was flipping through My Sweet Vegan and found the peanut butter cookie recipe.  The best part, they are made with red lentils...not only did I have them in my pantry, but it would make them gluten free!!  

So, you’ll have to get the book yourself if you want to try them, but I will tell you that I woke up bright and early this morning before my yoga class to make them, and they are awesome.  I am pretty sensitive to the bean flour taste, but you can’t taste it even a little in these cookies; they are chewy and peanut buttery and even better than I thought they would be!  I didn’t have parchment paper, so I just used a bare ungreased baking sheet and removed them soon after taking them out of the oven so they wouldn’t stick.  I suggest flattening them a little before baking so they have that flat peanut butter cookie look.  I skipped that on the first batch and they weren’t as pretty.          

Peanut-Plus Cookies  

Nutrition Information:  112.8 Calories; 5.5g Total Fat;  0.9g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  11.7g Carbohydrates;  1.1g Fiber;  3.3g Protein

These were perfect with a nice glass of unsweetened soymilk (sweetened with english toffee flavored liquid stevia).  I had them for breakfast :)  You might want to save them for dessert, but I couldn’t wait until then.

So that’s it for the food.  My holiday was fine, kind of boring, although every single gift I received was fabulous, I feel quite spoiled this year.  I also got Veganomicon and Great Chefs Cook Vegan, both of which I am excited about.  Actually about 95% of my gifts were food related, so I’m sure they will be popping up on here in one way or another!  

I'm going to dinner at my friend's house tomorrow and I offered to bring two appetizers, because they are having non-vegan potato leek soup for dinner.  I'm thinking stuffed mushrooms, any ideas for a second app?

I hope everyone had (or is having, I don’t think Hanukkah is over yet?) a great holiday!  I’ll be able to catch up on everyone’s blogs soon, if I haven’t already...I feel so behind!